BioNJ Announces Newly Elected Board Officers and Trustees

On Feb 19, 2016

BioNJ, The Gateway to Health, elected officers, two new advisors and four new trustees at its Annual Meeting on February 4, 2016.

BioNJ’s distinguished Board of Trustees supports the organization’s mission to propel New Jersey’s dynamic life sciences ecosystem forward where “Science is Supported, Companies are Created, Drugs are Developed and Patients are Paramount.”

“Because Patients Can’t Wait, we are grateful for our talented and dedicated Board whose guidance is invaluable to enabling our Mission,” said BioNJ President and CEO Debbie Hart. “We welcome back our notable list of returning Officers, Board Members and Advisors whose leadership has been instrumental in the work that we do and are thrilled to have the addition of four new Board Members and two new Advisors who are accomplished and respected industry leaders.”

Re-elected as Officers of the Board are: Chairman Stuart Peltz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, PTC Therapeutics; Vice Chair Donna Tempel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Drais Pharmaceuticals; Secretary Christian Kopfli, Esq., Chief Executive Officer, Chromocell Corporation and Treasurer Elizabeth Posillico, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Elusys Therapeutics, Inc. Francois Nader, M.D., former President and CEO, NPS Pharmaceuticals returns as Immediate Past Chairman and Board Advisor.

Newly elected BioNJ Board Members include: Bradley L. Campbell, President and Chief Operating Officer, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.; Geneviève Ménard, Pharm D., M.B.A., Sr. Vice President, Organizational Excellence, Celgene Corporation; Daniel J. O’Connor, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Advaxis, Inc.; and Marco Taglietti, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, SCYNEXIS, Inc.; Spiro Rombotis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Alan L. Rubino, President and Chief Executive Officer, Emisphere Technologies, Inc. were re-elected for respective two-year terms.

Newly elected Board Advisors are: Jesse Treu, Ph.D., Partner, Domain Associates and Kenneth Somberg, M.D., M.B.A., Chief Medical Officer, Covance. Re-elected as Advisor is Rajeev Dadoo, Ph.D., Partner, SROne. They are joined by returning Advisors: Sol J. Barer, Ph.D. Former Chairman, Celgene Corporation; Denis Segota, Esq., Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP; and Anthony Torrington, C.P.A., Partner, EY, LLP.

Returning Trustees are: Al Altomari, President and Chief Executive Officer, Agile Therapeutics; Ambaw Bellete, President and Head of Cancer Commercial Operations, Photocure, Inc.; Pamela R. Demain, M.B.A., CLP, Executive Director, Corporate Licensing, Merck & Co., Inc.; Paul G. Howes, Executive Chairman, ThromboGenics, Inc.; John Maki, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vicus Therapeutics; Anthony S. Marucci, M.B.A., Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.; Mohamed Ragab, M.D., Vice President, Search & Evaluation, Oncology, Business Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; James Sapirstein, R.Ph., M.B.A., Chief Executive Officer, ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Christopher J. Schaber, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Soligenix, Inc.; and Scott White, President Oncology, Janssen Biotech, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.

Bios for new Board Members:

Bradley L. Campbell, President and Chief Operating Officer, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.

Mr. Campbell brings over 15 years of experience in the Orphan Drug industry. He serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Amicus Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation medicines to treat a range of rare and orphan diseases. In his current capacity, Mr. Campbell leads the strategy, design and execution of global commercial operations to support the launch of Galafold™, a small molecule personalized medicine approach in development for the treatment of Fabry Disease. In addition, he oversees the business development, strategy, patient advocacy and program management functions.

Geneviève Ménard, Pharm D., M.B.A., Sr. Vice President, Organizational Excellence, Celgene Corporation

Ms. Ménard has a diverse background in the pharmaceutical industry, where she has served for 30 years in various disciplines including manufacturing, strategic and operational marketing and R&D. Ms. Ménard has been the head of the Project Leadership department at Celgene since September 2010 where she has transformed the Global Project Leadership function. Under her leadership, the department has optimized the operational excellence of drug development projects, and created a portfolio structure that has allowed Project Leadership to become a strong partner to all line functions and Celgene’s corporate strategy group. Ms. Ménard was recently promoted to Senior Vice President to lead the newly created position of Organizational Excellence.

Daniel J. O’Connor, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Advaxis, Inc.

Mr. O’Connor was appointed Advaxis’ President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2013 at a time when the company was a “penny stock,” had no cash and was burdened with significant debt. Undeterred, he executed a turnaround strategy rooted in an understanding of the potential of Advaxis’ Lm Technology™ platform. From leading Advaxis’ uplisting to Nasdaq, to assembling the company’s executive team, to securing high-profile collaboration agreements with Merck and MedImmune and overseeing the initiation of clinical trials in HPV-associated cancers, HER2 expressing tumors and prostate cancer, Mr. O’Connor has successfully transformed Advaxis financially, clinically and operationally, providing a strong balance sheet that has enabled the company to advance one of the most diverse and active immunotherapy pipelines in the industry.

Marco Taglietti, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, SCYNEXIS, Inc.

Dr. Taglietti joined Scynexis’ Board of Directors in 2014 as an independent Director becoming Scynexis’ CEO and President in April 2015. He served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer of Forest Laboratories, Inc. and also as President of the Forest Research Institute until its purchase by Actavis in 2014. During his career at Forest, Stiefel and Schering-Plough, Dr. Taglietti has brought to market more than 35 different products in the U.S. and internationally through a variety of regulatory strategies including NDA 505(b)1 and 505(b)2, 510k medical device, ANDA for generics and EMA MAA in many different therapeutic areas, including anti-infectives, oncology, psychiatry, neurology, cardiovascular, respiratory, dermatology, metabolism and internal medicine.

Bios for new Board Advisors:

Kenneth A. Somberg, M.D., M.B.A., Chief Medical Officer, Covance, Inc.

Chief Medical Officer of one of the world’s leading contract research organizations, Dr. Somberg’s accomplishments include leveraging the Covance Scientific Council to drive company strategy, significantly improving translational medicine capabilities, establishing the regulatory strategy function, enhancing the capabilities of the medical team, and deepening client relationships.  Prior to joining Covance Dr. Somberg spent 12 years in drug development at Novartis having previously been an investigator and Associate Medical Director of the Liver Transplantation Program at the University of California, San Francisco.

Jesse Treu, Ph.D., Partner, Domain Associates, LLC

Dr. Treu has been a Partner of Domain Associates since its inception in 1985. He has been a director of 38 early stage healthcare companies, 23 of them have become successful public companies. Prior to the formation of Domain, Dr. Treu was Vice President of the predecessor organization to The Wilkerson Group, and its venture capital arm, CW Ventures.  While at CW Ventures, he served as President and CEO of Microsonics, a pioneer in computer image processing for cardiology. Previous to that, Dr. Treu held executive positions at Technicon Instruments Corporation (now Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics) and at GE.

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